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Earlier this year I noticed new Craftsman pliers on Sears’ website. They didn’t look too bad, but the marketing language was over the top nonsense.

For example:

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Back in May, Ryan send me a message on Facebook (thanks!!), telling me that Craftsman’s USA-made Western Forge pliers were cancelled and all on clearance, as they were being replaced with made-in-China pliers.

I checked the website, and indeed, all of the Western Forge-made pliers were at clearance prices.

The complaint says that Sears informed Ideal Industries, Western Forge’s parent company, that they wanted to extend their Craftsman hand tool contract for another year. Ideal and Western Forge were reportedly contracted to provide a 6-month transition period following any contract termination.

It is said that Ideal waited until April 28th, 2017 to inform Sears that it would not extend their contract, and that Ideal refused to fulfill any existing purchase orders.

I don’t have any communication contacts at Ideal or Western Forge, and haven’t contacted Sears for their side in the matter. I just want to talk about what I noticed.

Sears listed new Craftsman pliers, presumably made by Apex Tool Group, back in March of 2017. I saw those new pliers as “the beginning of the end” for the USA-made pliers Western Forge had made for the Sears Craftsman brand.

When I checked Sears’ site today, there were very many new pliers SKUs, all I assume being made in China, or at least overseas. Shown here is a “family photo” which I’m guessing includes all of the new pliers.

Sears definitely had some of these new Craftsman pliers listed on their website as early as March 2017. There were a few set options.

So… is this new expansive line of imported pliers in response to the contract dispute with Western Forge, or did Western Forge know something and refuse to have any further dealings with Sears?

As mentioned, I saw the writing on the wall when I saw the new Sears Craftsman pliers design. Sears’ transition from USA-made Craftsman tools to imported ones has not been an abrupt one.

I remember someone mentioning nervousness on the part of one of Craftsman’s USA tool suppliers – fear that Sears would suddenly source certain tools overseas from a different company and heavily disrupt the USA OEM’s operations and cash flow.

As an aside, to Sears Craftsman’s credit, they came out with new USA-made pry bars last Fall.

I don’t want to automatically take the side of Western Forge. But it’s hard for me to see Sears as the victim or hurt party here.

Apex Tool Group recently shut down the Armstrong brand, or at least their USA operations. It was never completely clear what was happening. Someone recently commented to that post, saying he was told the Armstrong brand is not being shut down, and that many of their tools would now be made by Gearwrench. I don’t know what that means – that Armstrong will live on in name only?

Would that have happened if Sears Craftsman hadn’t shifted from USA-made tools to imported ones? It was widely believed that some of Sears Craftsman Professional tools were relabeled Armstrong tools. But that was a few years ago now.

I find it hard to believe that Sears Craftsman and Apex Tool Group – which I’m guessing is their partner here, going by their history and the Apex-characteristic Double-X/X2 double-jointed pliers – put all these new pliers through design, production, and distribution phases in the couple of weeks since Ideal and Western Forge declined to extend their contract or provide any “transition period” products.

I don’t know what’s going on, but my observations suggest that Sears Craftsman was already looking to replace Western Forge’s USA-made Craftsman pliers before Ideal declined to extend their contract or provide transition period support.

Maybe other things factor into Western Forge’s decision, such as fear of Sears not being able to pay for products shipped.

Thoughts?

N0te: Western Forge also makes, or made, certain other tools for the Sears Craftsman brand, most notably screwdrivers.

76 Comments

This is tangentially related: I lost all my tools in superstorm Sandy. I had been using some older Craftsman screwdrivers that held up well. Since then, I have gone through a couple of sets from other brands. The most recent was Home Depot’s. I have broken two of them, despite not hard usage and no prying or anything.

What brand would people recommend? I have read all the reviews on this site and some elsewhere, but can’t come to a decision.

I can’t speak to a “good” brand of screwdrivers, my snap on set is nice but I don’t think you need to spend like that for good ones. I’m sure someone will send you to the Germans for high end stuff, which is probably a good place to start.

If you’re regularly breaking screwdrivers though, look in magazines for a harbor freight ad, you can get their basic set free with coupon. I work in construction and mercilessly beat and pry on them. They really don’t complain, and if I break one I’ve got three more free sets as backup

Consider visiting pawn shops and thrifts stores to buy older USA made tools. You can often buy good used hand tools at a significant discount to the tools you have been using. As for new pliers I recommend Knipex for their Plier wrench and alligator tools. I also recommend older USA made Peterson Vise-Grips.

The sobering issue with screwdrivers is that they are not lifetime tools even in regular use. The Phillips drivers are particularly subject to getting buggered up. Many manufacturers have gone over to hardened tips – and maybe that helps a bit – but if you inadvertently let the driver slip/cam-out you are going to wear the tip. Driving hardened screws will exacerbate the issue.

Gordon’s link to Tekton is worth a look, Stuart has also posted about Felo, lots of electricians seem to like Klein, Wiha has a good reputation (I don’t like some of their handles) and Knipex makes screwdrivers too.

In my humble opinion, I would recommend Mayhew screwdrivers over any I have ever used. I reach for a mayhew before my Snap-on drivers. They have a strike cap, full tang shank, and they are reasonably priced. The grip is also very comfortable.

Go European; Wera, Wiha, Felo, PB Swiss, Witte, Gedore(in no particular order) are all nicer than Snap-On, Klein, Tekton, WF. Sadly the US just doesn’t make screwdrivers as good as the Europeans. Out of all the US screwdrivers, I’d probably pick Snap-On but I’m looking to add Proto Durateks to my collection. Tekton’s USA drivers are cheap and comfortable but the finishing on them is a little rustic. Klein just doesn’t fit philips heads as good as other screwdrivers at that pricepoint, comfortable grip though.

Vessel out of Japan makes good screwdrivers also. I’m sure there are several good screwdrivers out of Japan but I don’t have any experience in other brands’ screwdrivers from Japan.

Surprised you left out the Felo wood handled ones. I’ve been looking at those for a while but I have so many screwdrivers already. Not wil about the wera handles. I have some Wiha that I like the best. They are over 20 years old and still work great.

“Maybe other things factor into Western Forge’s decision, such as fear of Sears not being able to pay for products shipped.”

I find it hard to believe that any business would want to contract to supply Sears at this point. Maybe the execs from Ideal walked through their local Sears recently and decided to bail out of the sinking ship.

I’ve always liked the Western Forge Craftsman stuff, for what I’ve paid for it. Do they market these pliers under any other brand names that I can find somewhere?

Back in March of this year, Sears qualified one of their required reports to the SEC with a statement indicating there was a high risk of a cash flow problem to occur/begin sometime this year.

In July 2015 Sears made a sale-leaseback deal for a bunch (266) stores in exchange for $2.7 billion in cash. There was a $500M note included around this time, which is due in July. At the same time this sale-leaseback deal expires and is due to be renegotiated.

I’ve been hearing quite a number of suggestions over the past couple of years that Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has been personally involved on both sides of some of these transactions and stands to personally benefit no matter which way things go. It’s not unheard of for upper management teams to skin a company for all its worth by making intentionally poor business decisions and selling off chunks for cash a bit at a time for personal benefit, then hiding behind bankruptcy law to skirt suppliers and employees. Around here we call that “pulling a Kodak”.

In any event if I was a supplier to Sears and it was this clear the writing was on the wall, I’d have my legal department decide what the best way to protect our own company and employees would be. Sounds like Western Forge made their own decision before getting caught with their pants down. Seems likely nothing more than a risk management decision.

Some external sources. I feel like I’ve read more in depth articles but the sources and titles escape my poor memory at the moment.

This news only hardens my stance on non American tools. The first thing I look for when purchasing any tools is where it is made. I will not buy a foreign product. Not when my next door neighbor could work for the very tool company I am bypassing.
Buy American! If we all did our economy would explode and ALL of our standards of living would get better.

But how do you get hedge funds and the omnipotent “Wall Street” to care about this “ideal”?
And appointing effectively only Wall Streeters to the current Administration’s Cabinet might not best meet your pleasant sounding goals.

So how do “we” do this?

Oh. And actual (foreign) competition is why our 4K TV’s are barely an inch thick and our automobiles last forever compared to the long past glory era of Detroit.

I thought that I remembered something in the press release about the Craftsman sale to Black and Decker. I think that the deal allowed for Sears to continue to develop new tools through their existing suppliers. I don’t know how switching sources fits within that deal…..

At most stores, once things go on clearance, they stay on clearance (possibly periodically further reducing prices) until they finish selling their stock. At Sears, apparently ‘clearance’ is just another word for temporary sale. I heard about their many older Craftsman pliers going on clearance a couple weeks ago, but before I got around to buying any of them (thinking there was no hurry since it wasn’t a temporary sale), they cancelled the clearance to go back up to full price or tiny-amount-off sales… two weeks before Father’s Day, which I suspect is the motivation (take one more shot at selling them at full price when a lot of extra tool purchases will be happening). There had been a few other tools on clearance too, and almost all of the clearances were cancelled at the same time.

My ancestor was “transported” out of Kent England to the colony of New York. I guess transportation and then taking an indenture to a colonist, outside Kingston NY, was preferable to the alternative (the common English justice in those days was hanging). It certainly was better for me – since he otherwise would not have been my ancestor – his children having all been born this side of the Atlantic.

Sears needs to get their affairs in order, gather up their belongings, and walk off into the sunset with whatever dignity they have left. Just disappear into obscurity somewhere to a secluded desert oasis or cave. It’s like watching an animal in it’s death throes. Sears needs to be put out of this misery.

Sadly i dont know if they will… its a tainted brand thats known as being Chinese junk in the last 10 years. they’ll need an agressive market campaign to instill trust again into the brand and to make it successful they’ll have to manufacture the tools here which is expensive and if corporate taxes arent cut i dont see how it will happen. Seems like their betting on MAGA

I think this will be the end of Western Forge. SK is building a larger facility to produce more of its tools in house. Without the large Craftsman contract, who is western forge going to make anything for?

On a side note Armstrong was killed off 3/31/17. It’s not that Gearwrench is making Armstrong tools, it’s that Gearwrench and Crescent are the only brands left.

For those of you looking for reasonably priced US made pliers go channellock or wilde.

I have several Wilde pliers and they have to be the worst finished of all my pliers. They have also been very hit-or-miss for me with regards to the tips lining up or being flush. I had a dismal and insulting experience trying to get a pair replaced by them (unsuccessfully). I’m through with Wilde.

It’s too bad to have to drop a US made brand, but they did it to themselves.

Channellock, on the other hand, has been great. Very good consistancy and much better finishing with their forging.

I don’t recall seeing many USA Made Husky pliers recently. The Brand – once part of New Britain Tool (acquired by Stanley) – seems to have been picked up by Home Depot many years ago as one of their house brands. They have various OEMs for pliers – like Great Neck (UPC prefix 076812), Hangzhou Great Star (UPC prefix 820909), Iron Bridge (UPC prefix 811187), and Jiangsu Jinlu (UPC prefix 848949). I have seen some of their wares with UPC prefixes 037103 (Apex) and 648738 (Western Forge) so there is some hope.

Not the first company either. The end has been nearing for a long time now, right now it seems the executives went from cruising to flooring it into that brick wall. They’re wrapped up in lawsuits, and burning bridges with companies like TTI.

Maybe what’s its about now for Sears is how to maneuver, finagle, obfuscate and sell off without getting caught or engendering clawbacks so as to maximize the profits of a few at the expense of the many. I’m betting that when the end comes – a few will walk away richer than ever – while some creditors and unpaid suppliers will be waiting in line for the scraps that are left. What happens to the active workers, retirees, pension plans, and stockholders will be another unfolding story.

The companies that Sears has making their tools are wise for not continuing contracts with them. They’re smart enough to read the writing on the wall. As soon as sbd starts releasing Craftsman under their name, the Sears Craftsman will be permanently dead, no thanks to Eddie. There won’t be anyone willing to produce or distribute anything for Sears Craftsman brand in the near future. Maybe Eddie can work something out with Harbor Freight or the company that makes tools sold at the dollar store. I’m sure that people from Western forge has been to Sears & probably thought “we need to get as far away from Eddie and his company as soon as possible.” Eddie can’t even flip the bill to take care of his own stores. Kmart anyone? And it seems that everyone that had something to do with Sears & making tools to be sold at Sears stores are trying to get as far away from Eddie and Sears as fast as they can. They would rather get sued for breach of contract than continue dealing with Sears. Way to go Eddie.

Man, it’s like watching a trainwreck….Sears could pull themselves out of this death spiral if they would devote some of their funds to manufacturing in the USA…or at least engineering and creating a quality line of tools…they’re just selling the same crappy import tools everyone else does, and I don’t think there’s a market for them when they’re marked up at Sear’s “discount” prices…..(the classic 50% off…when it’s a 300% retail price!). I think they’d already be closed if not for their appliance business….such a shame to see where they’ve ended up when you see the glory of the old Sears & Roebuck catalogs….

What made the Sears Catalog – was that you could get most everything (including a kit house) from this giant Chicago-based company and have it delivered by rail to your local depot. Travelling peddlers and local general stores by comparison had little selection. Much like the internet of its day, the Sears catalog was a paradigm shift in the way Americans shopped.

Maybe the small is beautiful idea for houses will be a transformative shift too. Meanwhile my 5100 sq. foot house – plus another 2400 sq. ft. of basement and about 1800 sq. ft. of stand-up attic – is constantly being dwarfed by other locals who are building or adding onto ever larger places. And its not like any of them (or most of us) need all that space because of large or extended families. We are sometimes happy to retreat to our place in Florida – much cozier than rattling around a big house especially in the winter – and just big enough for the kids to visit and stay (at least in shifts).

I recently read the book, “Glass House.” It details the story of how Anchor Hocking Glassware had all the real-world value sucked out of it, beginning with a hostile takeover by Carl Icahn, but then a bunch of other convolutions, all designed to make money for the predatory global financial sector using smoke and mirrors. This book put together the pieces that I’d been seeing for a long time, including the destruction of small towns I’m familiar with either personally or thru the news.

I’ll still buy US made when possible, but the hope that this will result in anything much is gone as far as I’m concerned. While reading it, I thought about the Sears story and so many others. The book didn’t have solutions, but at least it gave a clear picture of the problem.

Predatory capitalism.
Wall Street has literally tripled its share of the US economy over the past 35-40 years. And still doesn’t make anything useful for anyone but profits for itself and direct investors. All the while shielding the individual’s taxable income through arcane tax loopholes.
Nice.
And where will it end?

Reported months ago: SHC owes 2.2B to its Pension Fund by approx. Feb 2018. If they go into bankruptcy before end of July it would have came due immediately. SHC will not be able to repay so look for Bankruptcy in either August or most likely after the holidays in January 2018.
Talk of manufacturing tools in USA “would’ve saved Sears, etc.” would never have been possible. Look at Snap-On, Matco, MAC who all import more and more each year.
Everyone should keep in mind, no Bricks and Mortar Retailer is growing since about 2002. More jobs have been lost (Not just low wage) in Bricks and Mortar than the already long dead Coal industry. Big Box Store Managers make between 85K to 180K annually. District and Regional Managers 100K to 250K. So when we talk about jobs lost in the economy . . .

“Everyone should keep in mind, no Bricks and Mortar Retailer is growing since about 2002.” Isn’t it ironic that Sears & Roebuck was originally a catalog company that sold by mail-order? You sent them the payment and they sent you the items. The model for Amazon, minus the internet.

It is kind of funny how everything old is new again – or at least in some new and different incarnation. I recently sold my Amazon stock (when it hit the $1000 mark) thinking it was near the top of its run – wanted to not be greedy and cash in on profits that while not in the Bezos class were nonetheless very substantial. I had parked most of my capital in stocks and bonds from the sale of my business interests when I retired in 2012. I bought mostly index funds – but also a few individual stocks like Amazon and some dividend-paying utilities. Maybe I should have held for a week longer – because the stock is up again after the news that they were buying Whole Foods.
So it seems that even Amazon still sees some value in bricks and mortar – but according an article in Forbes it may not be good news for Whole Foods employees.

The news that they bought WF and are likely getting rid of cashiers didn’t seem like a good thing. A lot of the WF employees do more than cashier, they know about products in the various departments and a lot of those products are fairly specialized. I have a whole lot of allergies and finding the products I need generally isn’t easy. The way Amazon’s website is organized is clunky and often inaccurate info just won’t fly with me. Many of the WF customers are like me (and allergies seem to be on the rise) so not sure how their model will work. Many of the WF customers may begin to shop more at the local stores, is my guess. Also, we like those salesclerks. One of the reason we go there rather than buying our organic coffee online.

Bricks and Mortar stores may need to offer something more than what Amazon currently provides. (For one thing, they have people reviewing products for free, millions of people giving them their labor. Not complaining since I use them and sometimes contribute, but it’s a big factor). IMO, Sears tried to be partly like Amazon with but ended up with a crazy website and and strange pricing and failed miserably.

Even if Amazon succeeds with WF, sounds like you made a good investment :).

I have bought only a handful of individual stocks over the last 50 years because I think it too iffy. Most that I’ve bought have proved me right by doing nothing or losing money for me. Amazon was an exception (5 times selling price increase in 5 years). As they used to say “if only you had tomorrow’s WSJ today – you’d be a very rich man” . I am still amazed that Amazon stock has done so well – pushing their P/E ratio up around 190. Compared to the utility stock that I bought (P/E ratios in the low 20’s and companies like Home Depot (also in the 20’s) a 190 is really crazy IMO – and I wonder if future earnings will ever meet up with the expectations being set by their current stock price.

More US jobs will be lost. So Eddie Lambert can make more money and kill off the Craftsman brand of made in USA. I swear to God, rich people should not be allowed to run corporations. This hedge fund bandit, is good example of the scum whom have sent up to 3 million manufacturing jobs to China All for short term gains. Money is the root of all evil.

On the new China made Craftsman pliers, what is the purpose of the cut-out on the handle which exposes the metal underneath? WHY? I’d rather have the handle one solid rubber grip. That’s distracting unless there is a good, practical reason.

Another thing…since the Extreme Grip line seems to be getting great reviews (especially their diamond tip screwdrivers), hopefully they will come out with Extreme Grip pliers. That would be nice, however probably not by the way things are going with Sears lately.

If you are missing pieces to your old USA Western Forge set, it was nice to see them still selling at OSH (Woodland, CA) as of 4/11/18. I have old crappy pliers that need replacing so I was actually excited to see these still selling in the 3 and 4 piece set as well as different styles sold individually. 3pc = $29. 4pc= $39. individual pliers = $10+. Some models sold out. Tempting Tempting Tempting. I have a feeling that these will not be re-stocked when they are sold out.

Just ask a former employee of western forge how things work. They will tell you the truth. As a former employee who made the hand tools, we found out the China steel was stronger and work better then our American steel. We saw a lot

fred on The Best Hook and Pick Set?: “Moody also make spring hooks and sets: https://www.amazon.com/Threaded-Spring-Tool-Kit-Light/dp/B0026GI62A/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=B0026GI62A&qid=1558784803&s=industrial&sr=1-1”